Forever in my Dreams
by Lord of Forgetfulness
Summary: "... Nee-san?" His voice fearfully trailed across the room. She pulled him into a hug. "Don't worry, little brother. Everyone will be safe...forever in my dearest dreams" OneShot Inspired by Rotten Rowan (probably)


**A/N: This idea was wreaking havoc on my brain all throuought the day. Unedited, unbetaed, written in less than two hours. **

**For the people who are waiting for next chapters for other stories, I'll have ADMACN's next, alongside with TDTL maybe within the week, though don't take my word for it. **

**Also, this oneshot features a fem!Itachi. No, don't ask me why, I don't know. **

* * *

That day was approaching. She had been dreading it for all those years, yet now she found a perfect solution to her problem. Yes, even though it may hurt for her, she knows that she has limited time either way.

Today was the last day she would see Shisui – at least for a while. The clan oddball and resident ball of sunshine had his heart on a good place, though as much experience he may have, he still hasn't deduced that it was all pointless – _all of it was pointless_.

For the longest time, she had stressed over the future. Ever since she realized where she was and in whose shoes she stood on – which admittedly hadn't taken her very long – she had thought of ways to change destiny, to find a way to make her immediate surroundings a less harsh place.

She wasn't altruistic and was not going to act like one. Yes, the idea of peace for a much people as possible was a good one, if a bit unrealistic and definitively not on top of her priorities. Plus, she knew where _that_ lead on the likely future.

Being reborn in the Uchiha Clan had been both a blessing and a curse – as many other clan members would also say (without the re-, only born). It is true that the sharingan is a very powerful tool and all that story, but it all comes with the package of being in the crosshairs of _literally everyone _on this godforsaken world.

Others may argue that it would have been the best route just to not get attached and let the story unfold as it once was. But living alongside these people for more than a decade, she found a way to read them (at least most of them, she still had problems with Fugaku), she realized that _these are living people_. Living, breathing people whose she interacted daily – the kind lady who owned the little bakery, the old uncle who was rather mean-worded though was a literal walking teddy bear who owned the corner shop, and she could list them all, one by one. Sure, there are some of them that aren't all that pleasant a person – though who could blame them? She has seen the world outside.

She had seen what prolonged exposure to _that_ could bring.

The thing is, for the longest time ever since, she had desperately look for a way. There had to be a way, right? They don't deserve to die like that.

The worst thing about the massacre wasn't the fact that they all died – that would happen eventually anyway – but it was the motives behind it, just a power hungry bastard and a shadowman who didn't want any liabilities to his plans of world-domination.

Or worse, every one of them, from the oldest to the youngest, killed off and just some of them would be remembered. Sasuke certainly didn't care enough to remember every single one of them (as far as the audience knew) – the rest of the village acted as if they had never existed mere years after, and the original Itachi may have until his demise.

So caught up with those thoughts she was that she grew very similar stress-lines as the ones the original Itachi had.

But a night not all that long ago, a realization came to her.

Just as she was getting more lost on her thoughts, a figure made its presence known by deliberately snapping a twig. She focused on the newcomer, hands automatically moved towards her weapons, ready to fight within a moment.

Shisui chuckled, hands up in the air as mock surrender as he made his way towards her. His face, despite the small grin on his face and the rather dull mischievous gleam on his eyes, was noticeably tired.

Despite her earlier attempts at trying to keep afloat that sinking ship, the situation had kept getting worse each day – and to rub it on her face, almost exactly the same as canon. It was today that the original Shisui would go to speak with the elders – and later commit suicide. In a few days the original Itachi would be tricked and used as a way to massacre the clan and then used as a scapegoat.

But she had planned for that. True, the plan wasn't perfect, and there were many rough parts that she would have to improvise a bit, but nothing too extreme.

"You should check it up with a Yamanaka or something, all that spacing out most likely isn't a good signal. Who knows, maybe your big brain has escaped from that puny confinement you call a head" Shisui cackled a bit at the end. To an onlooker, she looked the same as all the time – not counting her family who had seen her do other expressions other than serious (although it was quite difficult – Uchiha face muscles were quite stiff). But Shisui could automatically see that there was something she was heavily thinking about something – a something he most likely thought was how to prevent disaster, which was, but not quite.

She briefly smiled at his poor attempt at a joke, and activated her sharingan – she wanted a good last memory of everyone to recall. He threw her a quizzical look, but didn't react otherwise.

They then continued with the debriefing on current events, and she played her part until the end, when he stated that he would go see Shimura.

She called for him.

When he turned his head towards her, that was the last thing he did in this world, as he saw but didn't quite register the shuriken-like pattern on her eyes.

She sighed. "… Tsukuyomi" and moved forwards to intercept his body as it started to fell, and carefully let him rest on the floor.

She had taken a page from the original Itachi, and put Shisui on a paradisiacal last dream. She had seen him, he had an interest on one of the civilian girls of the clan – and she based his dream about the same the original Itachi did with Izumi.

Casting the technique repeatedly would be an absolute strain on her eye, but luckily, there was a way to completely unlock its capabilities right in front of her.

"… Goodbye, Shisui." Her voice almost imperceptibly wavered, " See you on the other side. I hope you understand."

She grabbed a kunai from her pouch, and with the smallest amount of hesitation, drove the piece of steel in such a way that his death would be instantaneous.

Then came the messy part, and she wasn't proud of it, but it was a necessary evil for the happiness of everyone.

Then came the staging of the scene, but luckily for her, she was a good actress.

* * *

The result was somewhat the same as in canon – she was heavily suspected, but she didn't say she was a good actress for nothing. Just stay in character, just stay in character.

She spent most of her last two days of seeming normality looking after Sasuke, helping her parents with their respective works, being a good daughter/sister/clan heir in general.

That, after the eye transplant – which wasn't a very pleasant experience, but had to be done – it went better than anticipated but still wasn't perfect. Luckily there had been enough time for her to pick the essentials for such a procedure – and to theorize how she could make such thing on herself.

Outwardly, her appearance was exactly the same, until her mangekyo activated there wasn't any visual difference. Now, her pattern had straightened a bit, and considering that no-one even knew she had it before, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

She had asked for a small vacation from ANBU, and given her diligent record, they gave it to her without much of a fuss. There was a great many things she had missed in the few years she had been part of the organization, small little details that she didn't pick up in between missions, and she made it her mission to know how much the clan had changed in these small, "inconsequential" or "trivial" ways.

She wanted to take all in for that day.

And her little brother couldn't be happier than what he was, he also developed a hero complex on her just like he would have done with the original. She would indulge him for these last days.

* * *

The order came. She could see in the eyes of the Hokage's Advisors that they were lying to her through their teeth, but she didn't care – and acted on character. She wouldn't do _exactly_ what they ordered her to do, and sure as all hell was going to dispatch all of Danzo's little minions assigned to trail her.

She didn't do, however, pledge for the life of Sasuke. She didn't wish that life to her sweet, oblivious little brother.

She simply acted as she had just resolved herself to the cause.

* * *

After dealing with Danzo's puppets, she made to do what she had planned. She knew that whatever she did, the Clan's days were counted, and they were less than one.

When Obito appeared, she was ready – and very so. Thanks to Shisui's eye, she had access to one of the most powerful person-to-person techniques there was. Obito hadn't expected such an action, and he was now under her command.

Overall, she did pity the poor soul, but for now, he was more useful alive than dead. She would give him his well-deserved re-encounter with his beloved when the time was right, and that was not now.

Obito, however, did not have Tsukuyomi, so it fell on her and her alone to send them to sweet dreamland. His assistance, however, did accelerate the process quite a bit.

She made sure to have every family group together in a same room, as if embracing each other. To make it painless, and afterwards to destroy their eyes. Their passages to the Pure Land were swift, and she wished they found their way together.

When it came the time for her own family, she asked for privacy… and took her sweet time.

Had been this whole thing a waste of chakra? Yes, definitively. Was it worth it? Also yes.

She quite literally had all the time of the world to talk to her father in between Sasuke opened the front door and he made his way towards the living room.

She hadn't quite told her father all the truth, but he seemed to accept the facts as they were.

"… Nee-san?" She looked towards her little brother, who was panting heavily from running. Mmh? She had made sure to close all doors and be as clean as possible, so her brother didn't have to see all that… though he had mentioned that he often passed first through a grocery shop on his way back home. Unfortunately, it seemed as today was one of those days.

She cut the mental link with Fugaku, leaving him alone in his dream, and slowly, almost sluggishly made her way towards Sasuke, who was just standing there, completely confused.

Dang, she must have overused her eye – her vision was starting to shake a bit.

She reached an arm towards Sasuke, kneeled, and gave him a hug. She swore she felt the beginnings of a tear form on her eye, but she fought it back. It would hurt way too much with the state her eyeball's blood vessels were right now.

She rubbed her face against the dark locks of her little brother, and he hugged her back. By his body language, he still didn't understand what was going on.

"… I didn't have any choice." She rasped, voice barely audible and he did just because her mouth was close to his ear. Huh. She must have clenched her jaws way too strongly. "But everything is okay. Everything will be alright." She separated a little from him, enough to see his face. He was still shocked – hn, no surprises there. He was still an oblivious sweetheart.

She imagined what would be the happiest possible day for him, and then projected it to his brain with the last Tsukuyomi of the night. She caught his limp body and carried it over, putting him between Mikoto and Fugaku, in such a way that they looked like they were in an embrace, blissfully sleeping like a happy family.

She took a new kunai – because the other one was way too bloodied and she did want to make this flawlessly. Fugaku was the first one – he was the least difficult, which is not to say easy. Then Mikoto… she had to calm herself at least twice before doing it.

She then moved on to Sasuke. The kunai was about to end his existence on this Impure World, when another blade caught hers and deflected the blow. She jumped backwards, sharingan spinning alive again – to deal with the intruder.

"Yo, weasel. Mind explaining what is happening?" He still hadn't developed much of his snarky persona, but the silver hair was unmistakeable. She could have potentially taken him on in any other circumstances, but right now she was quite tired and probably didn't have enough chakra left to win the fight and stay conscious long enough to vanish.

So she did what was logical and took it outside, where a very convenient teleport-man was waiting for her.

"Why did you do it?!" He demanded. She stayed silent all throughout the fight, doing so she spent the least amount of chakra as possible.

When she reached to where Obito was waiting for her, she found him in battle with an ANBU platoon, half of which were already down.

Between the two, they knocked out everyone except Hatake who has still barely holding up.

But she had been discovered already and she couldn't go back to finish the job, so with any luck Sasuke would remain in the world she prepared for him until the end.

So when Sarutobi showed up with even more reinforcements, she decided it was time to get out.

They stated that further resistance was futile. Their faces when they saw them quite literally disappear like a genjutsu were quite funny, even if she could only see one and it was the Hokage's.

She still didn't resist the urge to spill the beans, somewhat.

"… They will be safe, as long as I remember them…" her eyes flashed red. "And you ask for clarification? Ask your councillors, Sarutobi. They'll know more than me." Which wasn't completely true, but it wasn't wrong either.

The Third was left speechless.

Itachi and Obito (or The Masked Man, as they knew him) faded out from that dimension.

Kakashi cursed, and then fell unconscious due chakra exhaustion.

There were a few things left for her in this cursed land before she would reunite with her family. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to reincarnate afterwards, or if she did, after she lost her sense of self.

But the Pure Land was still out of reach. For now, most of everyone she held dear still lived on, on her dearest dreams.


End file.
